THE NEW POLITICS OF COCA

LETTER FROM THE ANDES about coca, the plant from which cocaine is derived. Andean Indians contend that it is a mistake to demonize coca, a plant they hold sacred, and a coalition of scientists and politicians agrees. Although the use of coca has disappeared from islands in the Caribbean and from Venezuela, to this day Kogi and Ika Indians of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the snow-covered mountains that rise inland from Colombia's north coast, use coca as they always have. Writer interviews Baldomero Caceres, an eccentric Peruvian who works for the Empresa Nacional de la Coca, a government agency in charge of all legal cultivation, distribution, and sale of coca leaves in Peru. It would be impossible to catalogue all the ways that coca permeates the culture, medicine, and religion of Andean Indians, so central is it to life in this whole region. The plant is also an integral part of the region's ecosystem. Official estimates for 1994 were that Peru had more than 268,000 acres of mature coca under cultivation and produced 182,000 tons of leaves; for Bolivia, the figures were 119,000 acres and 99,000 tons of leaves. Writer visits an ipadu-using tribe called the Cubeos, near the Colombian border with Brazil and samples their strain of powdered coca, used as a chaw. They were delighted that writer liked their coca. Mentions a return visit to the region after cocaine traffickers began offering the Cubeos hard currency for their coca crop and how this led to alcoholism and the destruction of the social fabric of the village. Scientists in Europe took little interest ion coca until 1859, when an Italian neurologist, Paolo Mantegazza wrote an essay on the leaves. Tells about Vin Tonique Mariani a la Coca du Perou, a red Bordeaux wine combined with an extract of coca leaves, which was the most popular prescribed remedy in the world in the second half of the 19th century and tells about Sigmund Freud's experiences with cocaine hydrochloride. The centuries-old European prejudice against South American Indians' chewing of coca leaves found scientific support in the medical profession's disastrous experience with purified cocaine. Writer cites the efforts in the 1940s of Peruvian brain researcher Carlos Gutierrez-Noriega to condemn coca leaf chewing and talks with Fernando Cabieses, whom many consider the most knowledgeable living Peruvian expert on the effects of coca and cocaine. Describes his argument that the "pharmacokinetics" of coca leaf chewing are different from cocaine. Mentions the U.N. Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, which prohibited international commerce in the leaves. Three decades later, many Peruvians and Bolivians bitterly regret that their countries are signatories to the accord. Tells about the new politics of coca, which includes politically powerful Andean coca growers. The president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori has made few public statements on the future of coca and given little indication of his feelings about the issue. Bolivia is much less timid. In La Paz, coca is sold openly, as are a number of products made from it, including coca tea (the national beverage), syrups, jam, chewing gum, and toothpastes. Former President Jaime Paz Zamora was the chief architect of a "coca diplomacy" that has been widely reported in the international press. Although Paz Zamora himself is now in disgrace-because of ties between members of his Administration and coca traffickers--he said, "...we will also continue our efforts to educate the world about the great differences between coca and cocaine, about correct uses of the leaves, and about their potential as a unique resource. And we are committed to the legal industrialization and commercialization of coca products." Bolivia does not seem big enough or Peru brave enough to defy Washington; nor is their reason to think that the UN will react favorably to increasing pressure from citizens to liberate coca from the present strict controls.